Ed Schultz Enlisted in Shabby Campaign of Leaks to Defeat Scott Walker

You think liberals are odious on any given day? Watch what happens when they panic.

On his radio show Monday, Ed Schultz shared two pieces of news that surely came across as sobering for his listeners. (audio clips after page break)

First, two polls showing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker with healthy leads (6 and 9 points) over Democrat Tom Barrett heading into a contentious June 5 recall election, a harbinger of  the Obama-Romney showdown in November.

More ominous still, the Democratic National Committee -- presumably cognizant of those same polls -- was rejecting a plea from Wisconsin Democrats for $500,000 to help unseat Walker.

Within 24 hours, Schultz and like-minded leftists in Wisconsin showed how scruples are a luxury they can't afford when it comes to defeating Walker. Listen to Schultz on this radio show Tuesday with this curious disclosure about Walker (audio) --

Now, we created quite a stir, I guess, with telling the DNC that they need to step to the plate in Wisconsin. You're going to hear a lot about Wisconsin on this radio show until we have a conclusion on June 5th. You're going to see a segment every night on "The Ed Show" on MSNBC. So if you're interested in what we believe, what I believe, to be the biggest election in the country right now, which is a bellwether for what could happen in 2012, you can count on "The Ed Show" doing something every day because this is in full throttle.

Now, sources are telling me -- now how good are your sources? How good are my sources? How good are anybody's sources? -- we have been told, if I may put it that way, and I'm maybe going out of bounds here a little bit, well, it's talk radio, don't worry, I'm not calling anybody any names, that Walker has recently met with the district attorney. And it didn't go real well. And one source tells us that, uh, he's not cooperating the way he should be with the DA. Uh, he's gettin' real tight. And, that, this is, this is, this is, I mean, I tell you what, this is so good. This is, this is, I mean, this is soap opera stuff.

"Soap opera stuff" indeed -- plenty of melodrama, not much substance. No wonder Schultz  wallows in it.

Why would the Republican governor of Wisconsin meet with the Democratic district attorney of Milwaukee County,  John Chisholm, assuming what Schultz claims is true? (agreed, big assumption).

Because for nearly two years, Chisholm has been engaged in a fishing expedition masquerading as a criminal probe. Here is how it is described today by Fox --

Chisholm has been quietly investigating Walker's associates during the governor's tenure as Milwaukee County executive. Chisholm, a Democrat, has set the probe up as a so-called John Doe proceeding, meaning his prosecutors can subpoena witnesses and compel them to testify while barring them from speaking publicly about the case. Five people have been charged so far on allegations ranging from embezzling money from a veterans trust fund to campaigning on county time.

Walker has insisted he's not a target, saying he learned honesty as an Eagle Scout and his county office even alerted Chisholm to the embezzlement. ... Walker's state spokesman, Cullen, Werwie, has testified in exchange for immunity that the governor disclosed he had created a legal defense fund using campaign contributions. Wisconsin law allows officeholders to create such funds only if they or their agents are being investigated or have been charged with campaign or election violations.

Chisholm's extended probe has so far snagged a single former Walker aide who pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts for engaging in fundraising for Walker while working at a county job and posting comments on political websites, also while at work.

Not that the Chisholm team in the Milwaukee County DA's office is above partisanship. The Wisconsin-based conservative watchdog site Media Trackers reported last month that 43 of Chisholm's employees -- including a deputy district attorney and 19 assistant district attorneys -- signed petitions seeking a recall election against Walker.

Chisholm and his underlings have also been criticized for suspected involvement in an ongoing pattern of illegal leaks from their investigation of former Walker aides. In an April 10 post at RedState titled "The Left, the Media and Plans to Destroy Scott Walker," Drew Ryun elaborates on the uncanny ways in which information from supposedly secret John Doe proceedings wend their way into local media.

Ryun, who created the Media Trackers site for Wisconsin, writes that "Wisconsin law prohibits individuals with knowledge of a John Doe investigation from talking about it to anyone, including the media." This includes witnesses, those being investigated -- and the investigators themselves.

Which brings me back to Schultz's claim that Walker met with Chisholm as part of the investigation of his former aides. "I'm maybe going out of bounds here a little bit," Schultz let on about what he'd been told. Almost as if the "one source" divulging this information told Schultz, you know what, I'm not supposed to tell you this, it's actually illegal. 

As to where that source works -- the Democratic DA's office in Milwaukee or Republican governor's office in Madison -- is there a scintilla of doubt? Only the most deluded left-winger could possibly believe it was Walker or someone close to him who disclosed this information to Schultz -- who reviles Walker -- while breaking the law in the process.

I'll stick my neck out and suggest it is infinitely more likely to have come from someone who listens to Schultz, uh, on his or her lunch break.

Not only that, there is little doubt about when this was leaked to Schultz. It was surely told to him after his radio show Monday when Schultz complained about Walker leading Barrett in two polls and the DNC balking on financial support for Barrett's campaign. Had Schultz known this Friday, he would have run with it then. Or the day before, or any other day. Schultz went on the air with this as soon as he possibly could -- within minutes of the start of his radio show Tuesday.

If you doubt that Schultz's win-at-any-cost ethos is firmly intact as he watches Barrett's prospects fade (and Obama looking more vulnerable by the week), listen to him lash out at Democrats for not doing enough to defeat Walker. (audio)